Ethical Business?

This month, anyone starting to plan and log their Continuous Professional Development through the Chartered Institute of Public Relations will have to complete a compulsory ethics section.  No one will be able to file their record without logging that section.

The only way, to quote Stephen Waddington, is Ethics.

I was pleased to speak to Oliver Balch a few weeks ago about how organisations should go about talking to their customers about their ethics – can you ever, he asked me brand a business ‘ethical’.

I explained that ethics mean different things to people, our personal ethics (the ethics of professional standards are a whole different thing, something for another time), but consumers and the media are much more adept at testing ethical claims, so the need for greater accountability and openness is absolutely vital.

I firmly believe, that PR professionals have an ethical responsibility (that does come professional ethics, not least for CIPR members the Code of Conduct) to tell their clients if a certain product is not 100% ethical, don;t say that it is.  But if you can say you are taking every effort to meet this and this ethical standard, say that – and always, always provide the proof.

I talked about two organisations, close to my heart  (neither a client, unfortunately) Riverford and Triodos.

   

Both I believe are exceptionally clear about what you can expect.  And I am proud to be a long standing customer of both.   You can read the full article here